Month: October 2016

I’ve always respected and profited from Al Mohler and this article reinforces both of those things. I was converted reading Francis Schaeffer and like Mohler, was especially shaped by his trilogy (The God Who is There, Escape From Reason, and He is There and Not Silent). I was a little older than Mohler when I was introduced to Schaeffer but was also introduced through D. James Kennedy. He had the same formative influence on me as Mohler describes.

As Mohler notes, many recent scholars have criticized Schaeffer on numerous fronts. Some of those criticisms are accurate and some are not. But Schaeffer never intended to publish for peer-reviewed journals. He saw the world as a connected whole and thought in terms of big ideas and trends. While many of us are surprised at how fast and far the world has devolved today, Schaeffer wouldn’t be. He saw it all coming and he was right.

As Mohler says, he also saw the greatest threat to evangelical faithfulness in the promise of personal peace and affluence. He nailed that one as well.

How Will We Live Now

 

With a title like that, you almost have to read further. It’s certainly a big claim. But the key is nothing new. In fact, it’s as old as mankind … Hospitality! Here’s the article that discusses it:

The Key to Evangelism in the 21st Century

While we’re on that topic, here’s a link to a short booklet we read years ago and it formed our understanding of biblical hospitality and its central role in building the kingdom.

“Discipline is a sign of God’s love for us, and hence a sign of our love for our sons. Going further, the Holy Spirit teaches us here that the son who is not disciplined by his father is not loved by his father …

We argue and reason and whine at our children instead of simply spanking them. But here’s the thing: arguing with our children goes on forever, but a spanking is over and done. In other words, spanking is a clear statement of authority and a timely punishment that, once concluded, is finished and life goes on …

Second, when you spank, the whole point of it is physical pain. It seems ridiculous to say, but spankings should never be symbolic. Their purpose is not to express disapproval, although they do that. Their purpose is to cause your son to associate disobedience, disrespect, and rebellion with pain …

The father is not through disciplining his son until the order of the home is restored. What do I mean by this?

If, when his father is done spanking his bottom, your son is sulking or stiff-necked, you need to start over and get it right. We’re not disciplining for mere external compliance or resignation. Our true goal is to restore the order God has placed in your son’s life. He is to honor his father and mother that his days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord his God gives him (Ex 20:12).

So if, after you spank him, your son is compliant but sullen, put him back over your knee and spank him again. Immediately. Tell him that you expect — no, rather that you demand — respect. His stiff-necked response to your discipline is absolutely unacceptable …

How will your son learn to fear God if you work hard to keep him from fearing you? Watching fathers whose main goal in raising their sons and daughters is to keep his wife and children liking him and thinking he’s a nice guy leads me to the conclusion that the father himself doesn’t fear God …

In all our work of discipline, we have a choice: we can fear man or we can fear God. We cannot fear both man and God. Either we do this hard, hard work of discipline with our eye on God, relying on His Word and Holy Spirit for everything we need to do the work well, or we do it with our eye on our wife, seeking her approval or the approval of the child himself. But in the discipline of our children, as in everything else, we cannot love this world and love God. We must choose, and I exhort you to love God and do as he commands. Discipline your son. Use the rod. Spank him. You will not lose his friendship. Your marriage will not end …

When you gain the faith to work hard at disciplining your children and you begin to relish that work and its obvious wonderful fruit, you’ll see that this is your true love for your sons and daughters. The whole godless world prattles on about love but knows nothing of it. Meanwhile, the acts that Christians do by faith (the very acts condemned by the world as ‘unloving’) are the proofs of our love. Or rather, they are our love.”

Here is a first class argument for private education and indirectly, for C&C education. Of course, the author is arguing for just the opposite. But that’s the point. She’s actually serious but her argument falls woefully short. She claims she survived her terrible public school education and yet, after reading her article, it’s clear that we need to define the word “survive.”

If survive is a purely physical term, then I have no argument with her assertion that she survived. If, on the other hand, life is (much) more than physical, then she survived only in a very limited and anemic sense … seeing life as not much more than a utilitarian journey.

Rather than answering her argument, point by point, I’ll leave that to you.

If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person

Good advice from The Classical Difference on parenting:

DIY Parenting